Herman Gates Weiskotten

HERMAN WEISKOTTEN

The person who deserves the most credit for bringing the Syracuse University College ofMedicine into the modern era of scientific patient care and rigorous medical education was pathologist, Herman Gates Weiskotten (1884-1972), who served as dean of the medical school from 1922 to 1950 at Syracuse University and then one more year at the new SUNY Upstate Medical Center. Weiskotten was professor of pathology from 1916 to 1951 and chair of the department from 1924 to 1942. In addition to his local achievements, Weiskotten also raised national standards of medical education through his involvement with the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Medical Association (AMA), and several other organizations. From 1934 to 1940 he chaired a commission of the AMA Council on Medical Education and Hospitals to write a follow-up to the 1910 “Flexner Report.” In 1940 his team published Medical Education in the United States, 1934-1939, known as the “Weiskotten Report,” which showed that only 66 of the 79 American medical schools had full four-year programs and that about 20 of the 89 American and Canadian medical schools were below AMA standards. Measures were quickly instituted to rectify those situations.